Related Stories

It’s a small plot of land on a rural road in Welland that most people in Niagara will likely never see.

But for the growing Muslim community in this region, Islamic Cemetery Niagara is an important piece of the puzzle in their faith’s afterlife beliefs.

Sadness, grieving and death transcend cultures and religions, but how different parts of the population handle burials can vary widely.

“Everybody grieves, so in whatever way they’re accustomed to dealing with it, rituals are their grounding for what they hold onto,” said Ruth-Ann Nieuwesteeg, whose family has run the Patterson Funeral Home in Niagara Falls for more than a century.

In recent years, as the population of Niagara continues to get more culturally diverse, she has noticed an increase in less traditional funeral arrangements.

The Muslim and Jewish communities, for example, both quickly bury the dead using their traditional rituals. It means rather than having days to plan elaborate funerals, the process happens within hours, requiring funeral homes and cemeteries to be flexible and work quickly.

“We’re open to providing interments for all cultural faiths,” said Cynthia Roberts, the manager of parks and cemetery services for the City of Niagara Falls. “If there’s an interment on a Sunday or it has to be in an evening, then we’re ready to help them out.”

Hussein Hamdani of the Niagara Islamic Society said the funeral industry in the region has been accommodating.

Most funeral homes allow Jewish and Muslim mourners to prepare the bodies of their loved ones themselves as required by religious laws.

“Funeral homes are realizing this is a growing community and they’ve been very co-operative,” Hamdani said, estimating there are around 1,000 Muslim families in the region.

Islamic Cemetery Niagara on Yokom Rd. in Welland opened nearly 20 years ago. It was one of the first Muslim-dedicated cemeteries in the province.

“In many other communities, they have a section of existing cemeteries, but this is Muslim-exclusive,” Hamdani said.

That makes maintaining traditions and religious laws easier.

“For Muslims, it’s all about the hereafter, it’s not about this world,” he said.

Muslims must be buried facing Mecca, which is in a northeast direction in Niagara because the most direct route to the holy Islamic city is over the arctic circle.

“Because of the demographics of the community, 20 or 30 years ago there weren’t that many Muslims in Niagara,” Hamdani said. “It’s only now, because our numbers are getting larger and people are getting older, there are more funerals.”

Judaism has similarly-strict burial rituals. The Jewish community in Niagara purchased a large section of the Lundy’s Lane Cemetery in Niagara Falls in 1957.

“It’s delineated by a road all the way around, which is their requirement. Their cemetery grounds have to be separated by at least a road,” said Roberts, adding that around 100 people have been buried in the two-acre section.

There’s also the B’Nai Isreal Cemetery, a private Jewish burial ground on Bunting Rd. in St. Catharines.

Regardless of where the final resting place is for their loved ones, mourning family members deserve to have their varying cultural traditions followed, Nieuwesteeg said,

“Whenever someone loses a loved one, it’s their customs and rituals that ease the pain for them,” she said.